


The Rain Has a Voice

by justleaf



Category: Original Work
Genre: Ancient China, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, I Also Update Slowly, M/M, Slow Burn, These Powers Combine to Create SSSS-Super Slow Burn!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28794183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justleaf/pseuds/justleaf
Summary: Two destined lovers, held far apart by time.The first storm of the summer marks the only time that Wen Jun, a mortal scholar pursuing his dream of becoming a magistrate, is able to meet the God of Rain. Torn between fulfilling his duties and fulfilling the desires of his heart, his mind is locked
Relationships: Original Male Character & Original Male Character, Original Male Character/Original Male Character





	1. The First Year

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Welcome to Rain Has a Voice. This is a story I've been working on for a few months now, and I've just made the shift to publish it on this platform instead. It's slow burn (as you might expect from a couple that can only meet once a year), so if you wish to skip to the parts where they finally establish their relationship, here is the list:  
> \- Chapter 5: The Twelfth Year (not published yet)  
> \- Chapter 7: The Thirteenth Year Again (not written yet)  
> \- Chapter 9: (not written yet)

The first time he laid his eyes on the God of Rain was when he was fifteen. The first storm of the summer had herded him into the only shelter he knew of in the forest - a cave carved into the windward slope of Shenguang Mountain, which housed the temple of their agricultural town's most important deity. And while its roomy interiors were usually packed with pious villagers and the scent of composting offerings, the overcast afternoon sky had sent every last soul back into their homes. The sole exception was the farmer's son who was still half a ways from home when the clouds burst forth with the long-anticipated rain.

Covering his basket stuffed full of foraged fruits and herbs, Wen Jun made a beeline for the nearby cave that he had just visited the week before. The town of Sanqing was seated in the northern reaches of China, nestled in a terraced valley of paddy fields and tea bushes. July marked the beginning of the long-awaited monsoon season, and though the rains were welcomed by the parched animals and the dry earth, the farmer's son wished it had waited just a few minutes longer.

Wen Jun was already drenched from head to toe when he stepped into the cold but welcome entrance, and he sighed harshly as he began to squeeze water out of the hem of his well-worn clothes. Though his ears could only perceive the deafening roar of the rain, hazel-coloured eyes couldn't help but notice the shadows dancing across the smooth grey walls in the distance.

As he stepped further into the cave and around a bend, the rain-soaked winds quickly ceased their whispers, and his skin was soon pricked with a comforting warmth that hugged every inch of his cold body. Meters from him but lifetimes beyond his comprehension, Wen Jun had to hold in gasp as he cast his eyes upon the sight that threw his entire world in a disarray. The farmer's son immediately hid himself behind a rock as he peeked upon the strange scene, partly curious and partly afraid.

There were cats, three dogs, a deer, a bearcat, and birds every colour of the rainbow. And in the middle of this strange huddle of animals sat a lone figure. He had read in borrowed books about how the characters would sometimes find themselves breathless, or how their hearts might skip a beat. And Wen Jun had never known that fiction could become fact until that very moment.

Perhaps it was the way that his silky, ink-black hair cascaded down his shoulders and pooled in his lap, or how his jade-like skin was untouched by any blemish or wrinkle. It was like a craftsman had poured his heart and soul into painting the perfect being, and then pulled him straight out of the scroll. He watched in earnesty, afraid to even breathe for fear of disturbing the moment.

"What shall I call you," the strange man pondered as he gingerly lifted one of the kittens up, "Carrot? Since your fur looks like a field of carrots. No? You don't like it?"

The kitten's whiskers twitched impatiently and it squirmed out of the other's hold, landing softly on its feet with a soft meow. To Wen Jun's horror, it stumbled towards the rock he was hiding behind and immediately dug its nose into his basket in search of food. Panicked, he picked the tiny animal up and sat it in his lap while it meowed loudly in protest. He tried to pet and appease it, but it's calls only grew in volume and distress.

"Carrot? What's wrong?"

There was the gentle rustling of robes and light footsteps approaching, before a curious face peeked out from around the rock to watch him wrestle desperately with the kitten.

"I'm-" Wen Jun tried to explain, but his words lumped in his throat. Silence dragged between them, and while his own expression was of evident shock, distrust befell the other like thunderclouds on a sunny day. His perfect almond eyes narrowed and the smile dropped off his face.

"Who are you? How long have you been here?"

"Please Sir, I just arrived," he blurted out as feelings of fear crept up his spine, "It was raining so I took shelter here and I saw a weird light from the entrance so I just came closer and saw you there but I didn't know what was happening or why there were so many animals so I just hid and watched."

His sudden explanation was met with a frigid silence that made him unconsciously gulp hard.

"Am I scary?"

"What?"

"Am I scary."

"Y-yes."

To his surprise, his answer seemed to please the other.

"Ha. I'll make Ao Tian eat his words."

He wanted to ask who that was, but the man seemed too busy gloating. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out; Wen Jun had a feeling he wouldn't have understood anyway.

"It's nothing. What's your name?"

"My family name is Yen and my name is Wen Jun."

Immediately, the other's expression softened. The farmer son's breath caught as a carefree smile blossomed across the man's face. It was soothing and it was benevolent, like a splash of cold water on a sun-soaked day, or a dip in the waterfall on a warm summer's night.

"It's nice to meet you. You can call me Yue Qing."

"Yue Qing," he whispered under his breath, relishing the way the name rolled off his tongue. He spaced out for a brief moment, and was brought back to reality when the little kitten padded around in his lap.

"Oh and this is Little Tangerine," he quickly introduced, lifting the tiny creature up. "His mother gave birth in this cave two months ago. I come in to check on them a few times a week."

It demanded to be put down back by the baskets where all the berries were, but Wen Jun ignored it and continued petting its head. Another awkward silence prevailed as they searched for a topic to speak about, and it was disturbed by a large black cat strutting its way straight into his lap. It sniffed its offspring once before curling up to sleep comfortably between his legs.

"So they belong to you?"

"Ah, no. I just check up on them to make sure that they're doing well. They don't have a father, so I had to bring some fish and rice the first few days she gave birth."

Yue Qing eyed his thin appearance up and down a few times, though his expression remained neutral.

"Hasn't the town been going through a food shortage?"

"Ahahaha. Yes," he answered with a nervous chuckle as he patted the resting and tired animal in his lap, "But I couldn't leave her and her litter to die. My family has been through some hardships, but we're human. We'll survive. A cat mother who just went through labour needs more nourishment than I do."

Something in Yue Qing changed, and even someone like Wen Jun who wasn't quite sensitive to emotions could tell that there was a perceptible change in the man. The strange man settled down on the floor next to him and took the kitten over. It calmed down as soon as it was enveloped into his little bubble of modest serenity, and the farmer's son could feel himself slowly fall into a state of tranquility as the worries of the world melted away in the presence of Yue Qing.

He didn't know how long they spoke for or when the sun had even begun to set. Wen Jun found himself utterly lost in conversation as they spoke about his family, his home, his dream of working in a magistrate's office, and the books he loved reading. From the fantastical tales of martial artists to dragons that roamed the heavens, and from philosophical text to the history of their nation, the bookworm treasured each and every scarce book he came across, and Yue Qing listened to every word he had to say carefully.

It was only when the rain began to lighten that the man began to rise to his feet.

"I need to leave now," Yue Qing announced with a soft smile that masked his melancholy.

"Where are you going," Wen Jun asked, not quite ready to end their conversation.

"Back home,"

"Where's home?"

"Everywhere," came the enigmatic reply that left the farmer's son confused.

"Will you be back soon?"

"Next year. Before I leave, I have a parting gift for you. Come, give me your hand."

And Wen Jun gave him his hand. Though he was young, his fingers were calloused from the tools he held, and his skin was darkened from the constant exposure to the sun. The hand that clasped around him was graceful and refined, and the difference was incredibly jarring.

"May your quest for knowledge never be dampened, and may the obstacles that hamper you disappear. I pray that you will find all the tools you need to achieve every dream you wish for, and that your heart shall always remain pure. Now close your eyes and count to ten, Wen Jun. Don't open them until you've finished counting."

When he opened his eyes, the rain and the man were gone.


	2. The Second Year

None in the town and no vagrant in the woods had ever heard of a Yue Qing.

Not a soul believed him when he told them the story of the man who had sat and talked with him through the storm. And after being punished to kneel in front of their house for an hour after recounting the story for the third time, even he had begun to doubt that it had ever happened. The adults reasoned that it might have been a hallucination caused by a stray mushroom he ate, while others chalked it up as his over-active imagination from all the books he read and all the late nights he pulled trying to do well in his studies.

At times, he would escape to the temple cave to cram in book after book, for there was nothing better than the natural silence and the lingering thoughts of the man who believed in him.

It was on one sunny day in the fields when his father dug up an ancient box filled to burst with jewelry and bars of gold, did the ones around him start to believe too. At first the money was spent on renovations for their decrepit house and much-needed tools, but when the acceptance letters from the schools in the capital came one after the other, his family began to realise that their child had not been sprouting stories after all.

No one could wipe the smile off his face. He immediately wrote back to his dream school, packed a small basket of buns, and ran towards the cave where he had first met this mysterious man. It had been a year and he would be there, right?

And so he waited.

And waited.

For two full days and nights, he waited till his mind became muddled from the boredom and his clothes began to smell from the warm spring weather. He wiled his time away by playing with the cats that lived in the cave and reciting Spring and Autumn Annals, but all humans had their limits. When it was when he felt like he might no longer believe in the existence of the stranger named Yue Qing, he decided to leave in order to keep his faith.

Fighting off the disappointment, he set Little Tangerine down from his lap and made his way towards the altar with the last bun he had saved.

"God of Rain," he whispered as he knelt before the altar, "Thank you for the shelter for the last two days. I'm afraid the person I'm looking for didn't come. If you see Yue Qing, could you please bless him with good health and protection on his journeys."

He sat in silent contemplation, and knowing that he had already experienced enough miracles to last him a lifetime, got up to leave.


	3. The Eighth Year

It had been six long years since he had left for Yuelu Academy to pursue his studies, and not a month went by when he wouldn't think about the strange man.

Even though it seemed like the Yue Qing had ceased to exist outside of his thoughts, he would always return to his hometown for the holidays and wait at the cave whenever he could, or ask the innkeeper if he had ever seen the pale traveller dressed in white robes. The answer was always no.

But even though there were times when he felt like giving up, the scholar just couldn't shake off the emotions wedged deep into his heart. Was it gratitude, longing, or something else entirely? His own feelings were as incomprehensible as the constellations in the night sky, and so the scholar continued to soldier on in the bleak darkness of uncertainty.

The light at the end of the tunnel came on one warm summer morning, when the sky began to pour without warning. It was a full week before the first bout of rain was expected and Wen Jun had been out for a stroll in the thicket of the forest.

As the heavy droplets drenched his garments and soaked his hair, he couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity. The only place that came to mind was the temple in the cave, and so he sprinted through the undergrowth as fast as he could, stopping only when he was under the shelter gasping for air.

"We finally meet again."

The voice almost made him slip and fall.

Right at the entrance where the little forest creatures surrounded him yet again, the sight of the ethereal figure made his heart skip numerous beats.

"You... It's you-" he stammered, but even though he had rehearsed this moment hundreds and thousands of times in his head, he could only draw nothing but blanks. His reaction made Yue Qing chuckle softly, his erratic movement startling the little white kitten that had been sleeping in his lap.

"How has everything been, Wen Jun?"

The sound of his name made him jump a little and he nodded, immediately reverting back to that awkward kid from so many years ago. His anxious heart was beginning to twist his stomach, but Yue Qing's light laugh was all it took to soothe his frazzled nerves. With the clarity returning to his mind, he quickly knelt on the ground, prostrating before the man who had changed his life.

"I wanted to thank you! It was because of you that I managed to become who I am today."

There was a small stretch of silence, followed by a soft sigh.

"You are mistaken," Yue Qing insisted, "I didn't do anything. You wouldn't have made it to the academy if you didn't work hard."

Wen Jun straightened up immediately, wanting to set the record straight.

"The chest in the ground - who else could it be? And you were the first to encourage and make it possible for me to pursue my interest. Before I was accepted into the academy, my parents wanted me to drop out of school and help in the fields. I've been able to keep going because I had your words to hold on to. So please don't say that you didn't do anything, because you were responsible for changing my whole life. I owe you my life."

Yue Qing was clearly taken aback by the sudden confession. The other man opened his mouth a few times to speak, but no words came out and they just stood there staring at each other for a long moment. Eventually, he turned his face away and Wen Jun couldn't see his expression.

"And I've been waiting here for you for years for the opportunity to thank you for everything. My life is yours. Once I graduate, I'll happily follow you-"

This time however, Yue Qing was quick to interject.

"Stop it. I don't want your pledges. I don't want that kind of burden."

The backlash caught Wen Jun off-guard, and he didn't have a reply ready.

"If all you wanted to do was to thank me and say these kinds of things, then you can just leave," Yue Qing insisted.

His icy voice was almost drowned out by the downpour outside that seemed to have gotten heavier. Wen Jun slowly got up from his kneeling position and stared dumbfounded at the person before him, his ideals completely shattered.

He had spent years thinking about how he should repay Yue Qing and what he would say if he ever saw him again. How he could be so cold-hearted and immediately reject his open heart? A biting anger began to rise from the pits of his stomach, and he wanted to lash out at this person who flippantly dismissed his sincerity. The words were at the tip of his tongue, but something held him back.

The more he looked at the turned back, the more he felt a growing sense of guilt.

He had turned this man he had only known for a few hours into some kind of matyr and was ready to dedicate the rest of his life to him. It dawned upon him that he had been acting like his parents - insisting upon a path without knowing what the other person really wanted, and getting angry when expectations were not followed or met.

He sighed harshly, disappointed mostly in himself, and noticed the sudden quaver in Yue Qing's posture. Was he making things up? He could have sworn that the anger had dissipated, and that the atmosphere had become a little melancholic.

In a sudden moment of insanity, he picked up Little Tangerine who had become much bigger, and sat himself comfortably next to Yue Qing. The other turned to stare blankly at him, clearly confused by his actions.

"Let's be friends then."

"What?"

"It was fun talking to you the last time around, so let's be friends. I didn't just want to see you again to thank you. I was hoping we could have another conversation like we did all those years ago."

There was a silence again, but the rain had grown lighter, and it was like someone had lifted a heavy weight off his chest. By the time the other man had collected himself, there was the tiniest hint of a blush on his cheeks, and his eyes had grown much kinder.

"Are you really willing to?" Yue Qing's voice had suddenly become bashful, and Wen Jun was left to wonder whether this was the same person from moments ago.

"Yeah. I like your company."

"Me too..."

"Do you want to name the kittens together?"

Wen Jun looked up to see a smile ripple across Yue Qing's face. It was like a drop of morning dew in the middle of a serene pond, and he couldn't pinpoint the source of the warmth that suddenly flooded his chest.

That afternoon was one he would remember in his sweetest dreams.


End file.
